I Never Really Knew You
by Aitsufaenina
Summary: Set a few months before Into Darkness, this is a short story of John Harrison (Khan) finding an unlikely friend, and possibly more, whilst plotting the destruction of those who had taken so much from him.
1. Goodmorning

It was dreary mid-morning. The streets were filled with a dense fog that seeped through even the heaviest of overcoats. Only the ones moved by urgent business dared to feel their way to their destinations. Boutiques and coffee shops found themselves overrun by customers desperate for a safe haven. One particular corner coffee shop was so packed to the brim that almost all the chairs were taken, almost.

At the counter, a tan arm shot out of a ratty gray sleeve as lean fingers wrapped around the piping hot cup of tea. The petite, but heavily bundled woman didn't even flinch. She pushed, shoved, and elbowed her way to the booth area. One particular corner booth caught her eye. A man sat reading on one side; stacks of papers were organized into four neat piles which took up two thirds of the table. Vala scanned the coffee shop again. Not a seat in sight. She shrugged. And she nimbly slid into the other side of the booth. The average person would have been bound by the rules of common courtesy and asked before acting, but Vala found such rules arbitrary and was more than happy to ignore them, especially when it meant a comfortable seat in her favorite coffee shop.

The dark haired man took another moment to finish reading a line before looking up at the unwelcome intruder into his private space. Vala beamed, her pearly teeth glistening from countless whitening strips to counteract her tea addiction. "Hi." She said. Her sharp voice cut through the noise of the shop. _This day was turning out more unpleasant than usual._ Khan did not reply.

The grave man's silence did nothing to dissuade her. "My name is Vala. Thanks for letting me sit with you." Khan looked back down at his papers. They were all in code, and he had spent the entire morning cracking the cipher. He thought he had almost revealed something before the ruddy cheeked child with her worn oversized coat and disheveled hair decided to force her presence on him. Before he lost his place he looked back down. Her wide gray eyes continued to look at him as she took a silent sip of the steaming tea. Her right hand went up to brush a strand behind her pointed ear. As she sipped her eyes wandered from the man, still in his heavy overcoat like her, to the crowd of people milling about and waiting to place their orders. Vala's soon drew her feet up to cross her legs, making her petite form look even more like it was being swallowed by a navy blue monster made of cloth.

Khan found no difficulty in damming the flood of stimulus from the rest of the crowd, but he couldn't help but look back up at the fidgety form that was his compulsory booth mate. It had only taken a moment to assess her as a non-threat but a second glance had him reassessing his assumptions. He frowned. Khan was rarely wrong.

She wasn't human. The girl had pointed ears but her brows were curved which suggested a mixed heritage, probably part Vulcan or Romulan. Then he had assumed she was physically weak from her size, but he couldn't be sure of that either as she had several loose fitting layers on. Then he had also assumed she suffered from a mild social disability from her lack of courtesy but then again, this was a different time. He had made a lot of assumptions about his guest and Khan didn't like assumptions.

"Goodmorning Vala." Her eyes widened in surprise, as if she was suddenly caught in headlights. It took her a moment to shake off the daze she had slipped into, back into sharp lucidity. "Uh, hi." She said, instantly regretting her weak minded redundancy. His rich voice was so penetrating she wasn't sure if she had only imagined it.

Khan smiled. It was meant to be warm, but Vala managed to catch the second where Khan wasn't able to mask its more ominous intent. She hadn't wanted to disturb the man, especially since he had looked so busy, but she wasn't going to let some stranger intimidate her into ruining her morning tea. She smiled back. Khan's sharp eyes also caught a hint of her true feelings – apprehension, distrust, and a slight disinterest. His smile faltered. He found her apathy to him refreshing but also disappointing. Khan recounted numerous times he had been complimented on his stern, yet aesthetically pleasing features. Who was this uncombed girl to not appreciate his form?

Khan dropped the smile and instead chose to initiate conversation. "How is their mint tea here?"

Vala cocked her head to the right and took another little sip. "Usually very strong, but they make it weak for me." Khan opened his mouth to make some more empty chit chat before she interrupted him. "Isn't it hard to decipher such a complicated code without a computer?" She took another sip and looked him straight in the eye.

Khan did not react physically, but he now regretted not leaving as soon as he realized the coffee shop would get too crowded to maintain his privacy. "It was a pleasure meeting you Vala, I hope you enjoy your mint tea." Khan's steady hands quickly began to fold the papers into one large pile.

"No…" Vala called out. She pouted her already plump limps as her eyes got as wide as saucers. Vala was bold, but she also followed a strict moral code. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to invade your privacy. I promise I won't do it again. I really didn't mean to offend. I just happened to glance at it and I thought it looked like code. I don't even know any cryptology. My friend Antoine is the one really into that stuff. It wasn't right for me to look at your papers especially after you shared your booth with me. Again, I'm really sorry, sir." Vala uncrossed her legs and stumbled as she scooted over to the end of the seat. She stood up, her legs still wobbly and a little numb. Her already rosy cheeks were now flushed scarlet.

Khan realized what she was doing and instinctively grabbed her wrist. They made eye contact. Khan pulled back his hand as soon as he realized what he had done. He cleared his throat and maintained eye contact, trying to regain his formal composure. "No. It will not be necessary for you to leave." Khan waited for her to make a choice.

oo00oo

Author's Note:

Looking for a Beta Reader for this story and those to follow.


	2. From the Bottom of My Heart

A hulking bear of a man took a step back when the crowd shifted. The sudden hiss of the espresso machine expedited his movement, right into Vala. She yelped, more in anger than in pain as she was pushed into the table. As her hip slammed against the hard surface, her dainty features contorted into something frightening. Khan watched, mildly fascinated by the inherent rage the girl harbored. Before Vala could relax her facial muscles, Khan's left hand shot out and his fingers took hold of the unsuspecting man's coat in a tight grip. With barely any effort, Khan pulled the man to the side. The other customers shifted in alarm to avoid his flailing form. The man's thick beard hid most of his cheeks but the fiery flush of shame and anger was more than visible. Others close enough to see what was happening leaned in to catch a better view of the inevitable altercation, only to be disappointed and somewhat chilled from hearing what came next.

The man opened his thick lipped mouth, lungs ready for a good bellow, only to find his caustic words caught in his throat. Khan met the man's gaze with his own, letting his mask of civility slip from his face. "Do make a more conscious effort to assess your movements and their effects on others." Khan released the man whose legs suddenly felt too weak to scramble away fast enough. The man quickly made his way out of the coffee shop, the sea of people giving him berth only to flow back in to fill the space.

Vala rubbed her still aching hip and hobbled back to her seat opposite of Khan. She plopped down; glad she hadn't been holding her tea when she had stood up. "Thank you." She said, though her apology fell flat. She was less than grateful for the scene he had made in her name, especially since it definitely wasn't for her. His motions, his words, and his face – it hadn't been for her as much as a chance for him to exert his power. She was well acquainted with men like this; hell, she had been described as acting as such at least a handful of times. And though all she wanted now was to finish her tea in peace, away from such an obviously vicious man, she realized that she was in a word, trapped. It was 11 am and the crowd nor the fog was showing no signs of thinning. _But were those really valid excuses?_

Khan scowled at her ingratitude. He had thoroughly enjoyed putting that man in his place, but Vala's lack of appreciation was starting to ruin the experience. He watched her nimble fingers unfasten the half dollar sized buttons of her overcoat. As she slid off the ragged wool, Khan was finally able to see her lithe frame. There was almost nothing left to the imagination with the second skin that served as Vala's 'uniform'. They gray outfit was stamped with an elaborate crest on the right breast which Khan did not recognize, but he was able to read her name "Vala" embroidered in federation standard below the insignia. She still did not look at him as she pulled out a PADD from an inner pocket of her overcoat. She placed the device on the desk, and then pulled back her hair into an immaculate ponytail. The earlier kinks and loose strands disappeared as she brushed the raven black strands with her palm, which probably had something to do with the pulsing silver bracelet round her wrist. In a matter of moments Vala had transformed herself from a disheveled little girl to a cold, professional woman.

Vala picked up her PADD and began to read. Her right hand held up her mug of lukewarm tea as she would absentmindedly sip every few lines or so. It didn't take long for Vala to get absorbed into her work, the bustling world of the coffee shop quickly fading.

If one looked closely, they could probably have seen steam emanating from Khan. He was a genius of epic proportions: a legend of intelligence, cunning, and savagery. He was a warrior and a leader that only myths could describe. And now, in the year of 2259 he was not only an exile, a fugitive, but a person of such little import that some nobody of no importance couldn't even bother to look up and acknowledge him as a person. If Khan wasn't trying to maintain a low profile to avoid Admiral Marcus's attention, Vala would mostly likely have been face down in a pool of her own blood by now.

Khan figuratively shook the murderous thoughts from his mind. He had more important work to tend to. This _girl_ was irrelevant and he had wasted more than enough time already. Though if given half the chance, he wouldn't have minded teaching this girl a lesson in manners.

oo0oo

It was easy enough running a mental frequency analysis, but the girl was right. It would take days of analysis before he made real progress. Khan didn't bother making physical notes on the documents, it was no trouble compiling his analyses with his eidetic memory, but it was just the layers upon layers of code that were so integrated with one another that they were symbiotic in effect that was proving a struggle.

The document was irrelevant. Khan knew what it held. It was the confiscated equation for transwarp beaming developed by Engineering Officer Montgomery Scott of the U.S.S. Enterprise, with accompanying report of its discovery. Khan had already committed the equation to memory after a glance while working in Section 31. The code was the key. It was Admiral Marcus's private code, and with all its advantages, Khan knew the chink in its armor lay in what Marcus believed to be its greatest strength.

Vala coughed. Khan flipped to the next page. Vala coughed again. Khan flipped to yet another page. This time Vala didn't say anything and just stared at Khan. He finished the page and finally looked up.

Vala wasn't going to dignify his provocations with a reaction. Khan took the PADD she held out for him, whilst trying to read her stoic face. "It's not connected to the net." She said. "I've taken out the hardware that I've been told does the connecting." She placed a clear piece of plastic no bigger than a fingernail on the table and slid it to him.

Khan opened the back of the PADD to check her statement. "Why have you done this?" He asks.

"We both know why." Vala replied. "Do you really want me to explain my conclusion?" Khan continued to scan the PADD's hardware. Vala sighed, might as well. "I assumed that every time you tried to run analyses on the text it would somehow initiate the creation of a virus that would crash your software. Trust me when I say I have no clue as to how or why something like that happens, I only know that it can. And from your earlier aversion to me knowing that what you're reading is code, told me that this is something you want kept secret, thus the nixing of net connection." She waited for him to look back at her before continuing. "Why don't you take a look at the program I have up. And please don't try looking at the program code, if you do, it deletes itself and installs a virus." Khan nodded in mute acknowledgement. "I'm sure you're smart enough to realize what it's used for." She said.

"And what do you gain from this, Vala?" Khan asked.

"Would you believe me if I said it was from the goodness of my heart?" Vala batted her eyelashes and then chuckled emptily. "I suppose not." She fidgeted, straitening her back and patting the nonexistent creases from her uniform. "I'm doing it for my cryptologist friend Antoine. He's developed this new software that fits your problem perfectly, and he wants beta testers before trying to sell it. So far he's yet to find his match, but then again he works with cyphers and puzzles all day so he can't help but indulge his perfectionism and paranoia. If it works, you get your code sans virus. And if it doesn't I tell Antoine he's still got a few more bugs."

"And what of the fate of your PADD?" Khan asked.

"Yes well I suppose if it does work you would want it just to be certain you don't leave any traces of your precious document, thus my good deed might earn me a small profit. And if it doesn't, well it's just an old reader I use for news and journals. I've been meaning to get a new one anyway."

"And of the program? How can you be sure I cannot or will not reverse engineer it?"

Vala finished the last of her tea. "Well there's the virus bit I mentioned earlier. And once you use it on a document it deletes itself. The program will leave you a copy of the document without the virus bits, or at least negated. I'm not really sure how it works. Either way, there will be nothing left for you to reverse engineer. And Antoine was sure enough to lend me this demo copy."

Her motives were logical but Khan remembered the rage on her face; it was a face that seemed so familiar, like something he would have seen from an old crew member. He looked down at the pad in his hands. He ran a finger of the many dents and scratches. It was worn and ratty, just like the coat she wore. She was lying.

Vala was sentimental. Her uniform, her hair, and even her new manner might be a convincing façade to most but when his thumb caught on a particular notch that had been rubbed until smooth he could sense her weakness. Khan smiled.

Vala shivered at the sight, unsure herself, why she had dug herself into a deeper hole with this man. A man whose name she didn't even know. The question died on her lips. There were enough lies said between them this early in the day.

Khan nodded. "Thank you, Vala." He said. He set down the PADD, and prepared the first page for scanning.


	3. Come What May

"To make it fair how about I get to ask you a personal question for every page you scan? 8 pages: 8 questions. And if you don't feel comfortable with any of the questions you just say skip and I'll ask another." Vala smiled, not bothering to tone down the mischievous gleam in her eyes.

Her attempts to establish rapport amused Khan. "I shall do my best." Vala held her hand out which he took in a firm but uncharacteristically gentle grip. They shook and a deal was struck.

It was truly an old and abused PADD. The scanning process alone took half a minute not to mention the uploading. Though it did provide Vala more time to ask the questions and for Khan to answer. "What do you do for a living?"

"Are you not going to ask my name first?" Khan asked.

Vala watched as another set of people walked out the doors. The coffee shop was finally starting to empty. She took a swig, tilting the cup 90 degrees to finish the dregs. Once done she patted her lips with a napkin. "If I wanted fiction I would have kept reading my novels." She said calmly.

At this Khan secretly applauded the girl. If not from her pointless altruism then from her cold perceptiveness did she earn a modicum of his respect. "I was an engineer. I have recently resigned from the position." He said.

"I would have taken you more as a ship captain from the way you handled that man earlier. You reek of command." Vala didn't bring up the short pause that made her suspect that his resignation was not on the best terms. Khan prepared another page for scanning. Vala pushed on. She had realistic expectations on what to expect from such a taciturn man and was surprised she had gotten as much. "What is your favorite activity to do during your free time?" She asked.

"In my free time I enjoy honing my combat skills."

"What style of combat do you practice?"

"All of them." Khan said.

Vala resisted the urge to tell him, _no need to be humble. _She chose to continue playing his pride. "I have no doubt you could disable me before I even blinked."

Khan smirked. "Vala, are you flirting with me?" It had meant to be a serious question, but even with his superior IQ it seemed the nuances of romantic relations seemed to elude Khan from centuries of disuse.

Vala bit her bottom lip, but it wasn't long before she broke into raucous laughter. She continued to laugh until her eyes glistened with tears. She wiped them away with the back of her hand as her sniggers petered off. "I'm just trying to make conversation. You on the other hand are making this a very worthwhile morning." She laughed again. Khan let her laugh while he scanned another page. A nearby communicator chirped. He looked up to see Vala setting an earpiece into her ear. "This is Vala speaking." She said, with straight faced composure. Khan focused his attention to catch what her caller was saying, but even his ears couldn't catch anything but a whisper over the bustle of the shop. "Yes, ma'am. Right away, ma'am." Vala said curtly before pulling out her earpiece. "Well it seems my morning has been hijacked. I really must be off." Vala stood up and began pulling on her coat.

Khan was still angry from her ridiculing him, but something urged him to grab her wrist and pull her back down again. He fought the urge. "If you leave before I finish using the program then you will not have helped your friend. And I assume he leant you the demo based on the fact you would retrieve beta testing data for him."

Vala finished buttoning all the way up to her collar. "I supposed you're right…" She chewed her lip again. "But I really must be going… And then again you still owe me six questions…" She sat back down. "Ok, here's the plan. Same place. Same time. Tomorrow. Do you think you can do that?" Khan raised an eyebrow. Vala exhaled with exasperation. "You know what, don't answer that." Khan caught the frown that flitted over her face for just a microsecond. "Good luck with your top secret mission, Mr. Combat Engineer." She didn't wait for him to respond before diving into the crowd. Her small form was almost tossed about if she had not willfully pushed with all her might. The PADD beeped as the third page finished uploading. When Khan looked back up, he caught just the tail of her tattered navy blue coat disappearing into the fog.

The coffee shop was finally starting to empty. The haggard baristas sighed in relief as the line shortened to a countable number. No one else had dared ask Khan if they could share his booth. He didn't mind the solitude, but he hadn't minded the earlier company earlier. Three hundred years was a long time without one's family. And his abusive guards during his indentured servitude earned nothing but his utter disdain, which they later paid for with their lives. Good company was hard to find.

Beep, went the PADD as it finally uploaded the last page. Khan's index finger hovered over the green button on the screen. "GO" it read. It was simple enough. The interface was utilitarian to say the least. It lacked the bells and whistles of a marketed product. He wondered how it had gotten this far. It was naïve of him just to scan the stolen document into any device. There was limited reason to trust the girl, yet all the reason in the world to be wary of her help. If his exile and capture had taught him anything, it was that trust was a commodity best consumed by the weak. He was Khan Noonien Singh; a one man army who bowed to no man. "Yes." He whispered to himself. Vala was nothing but a pawn. She harbored genuine feelings for him; even Khan's cold mind could assess that. What exactly those feelings were, were still to be fully analyzed, but whatever they may be, as long as they served his purposes, they were nothing more than tools to be manipulated. And so, for the greater good of his mission, Khan's finger descended: come what may. The screen hiccupped for just a second, flashing to gray static, only to go completely black.

oo00oo

In the corner booth of the coffee shop sat Vala, a new PADD in hand. It had taken her five minutes or so but she had finally overcome the need to look up at every new customer to walk through the door. She took another sip of her weak mint tea. She swiped to the next page. Vala chewed on her bottom lip. Her eyes flitting to the right corner every thirty seconds. She stopped trying to read. She admonished herself for her weakness. She was acting like an airheaded school girl. Vala sighed as the clock flashed 10am. _What a fool she had been…_


	4. Hello Again

Khan Noonien Singh slid into the booth. Vala looked up from her PADD. Khan took a moment to enjoy the look of shock she didn't have time to hide. "Good morning Vala" he said. Vala just nodded.

Khan was still clad head to toe in midnight black, his lean form cutting an intimidating yet graceful figure. Vala on the other hand had opted for a simple pastel blue dress to celebrate the sun's appearance. They appeared the most unlikely pair. "You look very nice today, Vala" khan said. This of course snapped Vala out of her shock. She tried not to eye him warily and failed. Khan pulled out Vala's PADD and set it on the table. He pushed it across to her. Vala picked it up and turned it on. She looked up at Khan, her brows furrowed. "Why didn't you use the program?"

"I did and it worked." Khan said.

Vala fiddled with the program. "Then why is it still on my PADD? It should have been deleted."

Khan took a sip of his tea. "I recovered the program."

"How? Or even, why?" Vala asked.

Khan looked at her, and she flinched from the force of his disdain. "The program was flawed. I fixed what I could. I wouldn't suggest tampering with the code yourself. Ask your friend to retrieve it."

"Well I certainly got more than I bargained for... Thanks, I guess. Antoine will definitely owe me one now..." Vala turned off the PADD and slipped into her purse. "Was this some ploy to distract me from the questions I was planning to ask you?"

With the virus removed, Khan's decoding was expedited by days. The next phase of his plan wasn't due for another week. And it could never hurt to cultivate a resource that had proved so useful. He would stay. He would answer her asinine questions. And he would wring all the usefulness out of her. He spoke, his baritone voice dripping with charm. "Now that I've helped you, I only ask the privilege of asking you questions in return."

"Fair is fair" Vala said. "Now should I go first or would you like to."

"I believe the saying goes 'ladies first'"

"Well it's hard not asking a question that isn't prying while still worth my time... Why don't you actually ask the first one. "

"What is it that you do Vala?" He asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. "As of right now I'm a personal assistant." Khan waited for her to elaborate but she didn't. Khan noted her defeated posture. She obviously had ambition. What was holding her back? Vala sighed and said, "I'm not sure if this should count as a question, but what would you like me to call you?"

John was a common name. And he had enough practice responding to it that he would have no trouble slipping into that persona, yet Vala had made it clear enough she didn't want his false name. She wanted him. Whoever he was. She had handed him power. She trusted him. Hubris was his weakness, but Khan thought a little indulgence couldn't hurt. "Please call me, K"

"K?" Vala asked rhetorically. "Ok, then. Its a pleasure to meet you, K".

Khan nodded in acknowledgement. "And where do you work, Vala?""

She frowned. This was exactly the direction she was trying to avoid. "In the office down the street." She dove into her next question before Khan could continue. "So where do you see yourself in ten years, K?" She meant it as a joke, just one of those gag questions from an impersonal personality questionnaire.

"...With my family." Khan's grip tightened into a white knuckled, quivering fist. The paper cup that had once held his tea crumpled, spilling the hot liquid all over the table. Vala bolted out of the booth.

Khan looked down at the mess he made. The tea was about to drip down onto his pants, but he couldn't seem to slacken his hold. Admiral Marcus would pay. Starfleet would pay. They will all pay. Even if it cost him his life.


End file.
